The present invention relates to a vehicle body, and more specifically relates to a vehicle body in which the front driver's seat and the front passenger's seat are asymmetrically disposed with respect to the central line of the vehicle body.
In the following explanations, it will be assumed that the vehicle in question is of the so called right hand drive configuration, in which the driver sits on the right side thereof and a front passenger optionally sits on the left side thereof; but this should not be considered as limitative, but as applying equally to a left hand drive configuration type vehicle, mutatis mutandis.
In the prior art, generally a vehicle body has been built in a symmetrical fashion with respect to its central line, i.e. with respect to the line drawn as connecting the middle points of the front and the rear axle lines of the vehicle. In the vehicle interior, except for the arrangements relating to the instrument panel and dash board, the control pedals and hand controls, the interior arrangements of the vehicle body have been conventionally symmetrical about the center line, and in particular, in the case of a vehicle with so called bucket seats in which the driver's seat and the front passenger's seat are separately provided, the two front seats have been symmetrically positioned: in other words, the driver's seat and the front passenger's seat are located at equal distances on opposite sides of the vehicle center line. Thus, in the conventional art, the spaces allocated to the driver and to the front seat passenger have been substantially identical in form and size, being mirror images of one another.
The problems with such a conventional layout, however, have been manifold. Since, particularly in the case of a small car, the interior dimensions are necessarily limited, the driver may be cramped due to the presence of a passenger in the front passenger's seat. Furthermore, the left arm or shoulder of the driver may interfere with the passenger, or alternatively the right arm or shoulder of the driver may interfere with the interior accoutrements of the vehicle passenger compartment. Since a vehicle is often operated by a driver without any passenger sitting in the front passenger's seat, the space allocated to such a passenger sitting in the front passenger's seat is often wasted.
Also, typically there is a fairly substantial bulge on the right side of the foot space allocated to the driver, due to the intrusion of the right side front wheel housing thereinto, and this often makes it necessary for the control pedals (the brake and accelerator pedals and an optional clutch pedal) to be offset to the left from the central line of the driver's seat, i.e. towards the central line of the vehicle body, from their most natural and ergonomic position. This can cause the driver to be necessarily seated in a cramped and unnatural position, somewhat slanted from the longitudinal line of the vehicle body, which is clearly undesirable since in such a case the driver is prevented from looking straight ahead and is forced to look sideways.